Browse Notices

Scuttlebutt

From their lips to your ears

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"I'm on the side of conservatives getting back to core
conservative values. There are a lot of us from the South who hold
those values, which I think the party is supposed to be about. We
strayed from them in the past few years, and that's why we performed so
badly in the national elections." ­— U.S.Sen.
David Vitter, in an interview with The Washington
Times

"In contrast to the kind of luvfest (Sen.) David
Vitter is used to, this trip was legal, public and no money changed
hands. As we all remember, the last time David Vitter made public
comments about a 'luvfest,' he ended up begging for forgiveness."
— Louisiana Democratic Party spokesman Kevin
Franck, in response to an Internet ad from Vitter's team
attacking his putative challenger, Rep. Charlie Melancon,
for attending what the ad called a "Liberal LuvFest" in
Massachusetts.

"Our government doesn't exist to protect voters from
interests, it exists to protect interests from voters." —
Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi, on the Senate
Democrats' plan for health-care reform

Landrieu: More 'Fair Shares'

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans, has
introduced legislation that would guarantee a fair share of offshore
oil and natural gas revenue goes to coastal states. The concept might
sound familiar. In 2006, Louisiana and three other states were granted
a 37.5 percent stake in energy development off its shores through the
Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. It was a landmark
measure that is expected to send tens of billions of dollars to the
Bayou State in coming decades. Now Landrieu wants other
energy-producing states to have a piece of the pie. "As our nation
weans itself off foreign oil and transitions to the next generation of
energy, we need offshore energy production in U.S. waters to get us
there," Landrieu says. "Coastal states will play a key role in building
that 'energy bridge' if Congress can guarantee them their fair share of
revenue and conservation royalties. This approach has worked in
Louisiana, and it can for other states as well."

Current federal law sends 100 percent of oil and gas
royalties from production off the Outer Continental Shelf —
outside of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama — to the
federal treasury. The proposed Domestic Energy Security Act of 2009
would grant participating states the same 37.5 percent of all rents,
royalties and bonuses from environmentally responsible oil and gas
development in adjacent federal waters. Additionally, the bill would
ensure that 12.5 percent of all new revenues derived from offshore
drilling would be deposited into the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
It would likewise permit leasing of the Destin Dome area near the
Florida Panhandle. — Jeremy Alford

FRANCKLY SPEAKING

Kevin Franck, the new communications director for
the Louisiana Democratic Party, noted in a recent email that the
political lexicon has expanded to include "Vitterisms" —
references to the sex scandal involving U.S. Sen. David Vitter,
R-Metairie. Franck's take: "Wide stance. Hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Now we can add 'doing a Vitter' to the new lexicon of Republican sex
scandals. In a story about (Sen.) John Ensign, (the
Washington D.C.-based Web site) Politico quotes an anonymous GOP aide
saying that the Nevada Senator is 'trying to do a Vitter' by refusing
to come clean and pretending nothing ever happened." Sen. David Vitter
managed to say virtually nothing but that he was sorry for committing a
'very serious sin' after his name turned up in the phone book of the
alleged D.C. Madam in 2007. — Alford

Deader Than Dead

The size of this year's so-called dead zone in the Gulf
of Mexico, which runs practically the entire coastline at 3,000 square
miles, is smaller than forecast, according to Dr. Nancy
Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine
Consortium. She adds, however, that the dead zone, which is usually
limited to water just above the sea floor, was so severe where it did
occur that it is extending closer to the water's surface — a new
trend. Earlier this summer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Association sponsored forecast models developed by a group of
researchers who predicted a larger-than-normal dead zone area of
between 7,450 and 8,456 square miles. The forecast was driven primarily
by the high nitrate loads and high freshwater flows from the
Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers in spring 2009, as measured by the
U.S. Geological Survey.

Rabalais believes the smaller dead zone is due to
unusual weather patterns that re-oxygenated the waters, among other
factors. "The winds and waves were high in the area to the west of the
Atchafalaya River delta and likely mixed oxygen into these shallower
waters prior to the cruise, thus reducing the area of the zone in that
region," says Rabalais. "The variability we see within each summer
highlights the continuing need for multiple surveys to measure the size
of the dead zone in a more systematic fashion." The dead zone is fueled
by nutrient runoff, principally from agricultural activity, which
stimulates an overgrowth of algae that sinks, decomposes, and consumes
most of the life-giving oxygen supply in the water. The Gulf of Mexico
dead zone is of particular concern because it threatens commercial and
recreational Gulf fisheries that generate about $2.8 billion annually.
The average size of the dead zone over the past five years is about
6,000 square miles. The interagency Gulf of Mexico/Mississippi River
Watershed Nutrient Task Force hopes to cut that figure to 2,000 square
miles or less by 2015. — Alford